Case Analysis: Advocate General, State of Bihar v. Madhya Pradesh Khair Industries Ltd

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5 months ago

Author : Ramneek kaur, a student at Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, New Delhi

Name of the case- (Appellant) Advocate General, State of Bihar

(Respondent) Madhya Pradesh Khair Industries Ltd

Case Number- criminal appeal No. 349 of 1974

Citation- 1980 Air 946

Court- Patna High Court

Bench- Sarkaria, Ranjit Singh Reddy, O. Chinnappa

Decided on- 5 March, 1980

Counsel- Lal Narayan Sinha, Attorney General, U.P. Singh, B.P. Singh and S.N. Jha for the Appellant and Sukumar Ghose for the Respondent.

Abstract:

Contempt of court is said to be committed when a person acts in an inappropriate manner towards the court or willfully decide to disobey an order communicated by the court. There are two types of Contempt of Court, civil contempt and criminal contempt. Contempt of court is also a restriction under Article 19(2) of the Indian constitution. This paper will confer about a case of criminal contempt of court. Furthermore it will outline on how by filing number of applications and not complying with the orders of the court, thereby misleading the court by stating wrong material facts and obstructing the administration of justice by abusing the process of the court, the respondents were charged under criminal contempt and further directed to pay Rs.500 as fine with a simple imprisonment of two weeks.

Introduction:

In India Judiciary is the highly reputed institution, which settles down the conflicts and thereby provide justice to the people. So it is essential to protect the integrity of the court by obeying the authority of the court and enable them to exercise its power non-arbitrarily, which ultimately helps the court to fairly administer the justice. Therefore to safeguard the power and authority of the court, The Contempt of Court Act was implemented in 1971, under which types, time, punishment and many other things are mentioned to protect the authority of the court. This paper is linked with the criminal aspect of The Contempt of Court Act, 1971.When a person tries to scandalize or interferes in the proceedings or administration of the court so it is considered as criminal contempt of the court as per section 2(c) of The Contempt of Court Act, 1971. Furthermore this paper will be highlighting how the conduct of the person is amounted to criminal contempt.

Facts:

The Respondents in this case were the high ranking bidders at an auction announced by the Divisional Forest Officer of Garwa South for the four forest coupes in Bihar. As per the terms of the agreement respondents were supposed to make a deposit payment, which was 25% each of the respective four coupes as a security amount. Thereby the respondents complied with the deposit payment for only one coupe from the four and requested for some extra time. Thereafter long course of correspondence, the conservator of forests scrutinized and determined the agreement on January 28, 1970 and on February 28, 1970 respondent 1 served a notice on Divisional Forest Officer of Garwa South, informing him that they had filed an application under 226 of the Indian constitution at Calcutta High Court in which they had pleaded contended to issue a rule nisi and an injunction prohibiting the forest departments and Bihar government from determining leases.

Contentions of the parties:

Respondent

The notice served by Respondent 1 contended to issue a rule nisi and an injunction prohibiting the forest departments and Bihar government from determining leases. Moreover, they directed to allow Madhya Pradesh Khair Industries to carry on cutting and felling trees and removing material from the said forest coupes. Furthermore they put averments on the forest department of Bihar for not complying with the orders of injunction by filing an application of contempt of court against the officers. In the same application they prayed for no interference in activities of removing produce from khair trees in which they succeeded.

On 21 April, 1971 without complying with the order of Patna High court, respondent 1 moved to learned single judge of the Calcutta High Court and obtained a restraining order against continuing the money suit which was dismissed by an appeal filed by the State of Bihar on 10 January, 1972. In the meanwhile respondent 1 served another application to reduce the security amount to Rs.60,000, which was accepted on 30 July, 1971. Before concluding anything further respondent 1 again filed another petition for stay on money suit till the attached goods were released as to the order dated 30 July, 1971.

Appellant

The State of Bihar preferred an appeal to the division bench of Calcutta High Court on 29 September, 1970 under which an order was passed for the respondents to deposit a security of Rs.1,55,000 if they want to remove the produce, otherwise they will be restricted to remove any material from the trees, owing to which respondents offered a property but it was refused by the registrar as there was some issue with the title. Afterwards State of Bihar filed a money suit before the subordinate judge of Palamau to recover a sum of Rs. 1,93,225 as damages. They also filed an application an application under order 38, Rule 5 of Code of Civil Procedure and succeeded in an order of attachment of the Kath manufactured by the respondents along with utensils, equipment and other material. The attachment took effect on 10 January, 1971. Thereby directing the respondents to pay Rs.2,00,000 and show the cause why the attachment should not be made absolute.

Furthermore the respondents appeared before the learned subordinate judge and requested to reduce the amount to Rs.75,000. The learned subordinate judge accepted the prayer of respondents. The State of Bihar filed an appeal to Patna high court where the interim order was made staying the operation of the order by the learned subordinate judge without discontinuing the attachment. On 29 March, 1971 after listening the plea of both the parties Patna High court made an order to the respondents for depositing Rs.75,000 as security of immovable property and a bank guarantee of Rs.50,000, owing to which the respondents will be allowed to remove their material and interim attachment will cease.

On 20 November, 1972 the State of Bihar filed an application before the subordinate judge for non- compliance of the security amount as said by Patna High Court. Annoyed with manner how respondent 1 was filing repeated applications, the State of Bihar filed an application of committing contempt of court against the respondent, alleging how they obstruct the administration of justice and interference in due course of judicial proceedings.

Issues:

Whether the behavior of respondents amounted contempt of court?

Whether the filing of application on 14 December, 1972 was an abuse of the court process?

Judgment:

The Patna High Court held the conduct of the respondents as most unscrupulous and there was gross abuse of the process of the court by the respondents. The High Court dismissed the petition as it was filed beyond one year as mentioned under section 20 of The Contempt of Court Act, 1971. It was also highlighted in the judgment that the learned single judge who was forced to give the order in the favor of respondents was misled by the respondents and obtained the orders from the judge by suppressing the material facts.

The game begins when the respondents filed an application before Calcutta High Court instead of Patna High court. This step prima facie was not bona fide and was made to harass the opposite parties. Afterwards, number of applications was filed before the learned single judge. The order to furnish the said security by the division bench of Calcutta and Patna High Court was also disobeyed by the respondents. Lastly it was held by the court that the application made at 14 December, 1972 was an absolute abuse of the process of the court, thereby obstructing the due course of judicial proceedings and administration of justice which is criminal contempt of court.

The apology of the respondents was not accepted by the court as the conduct of the respondents was reprehensible. Therefore, the respondents were charged under criminal contempt and further directed to pay Rs.500 as fine with a simple imprisonment of two weeks.

Conclusion:

The honorable Patna High Court declared this judgment as criminal contempt of the court by quoting the behavior of respondents as unscrupulous and misled from very starting. They prima facie intended to oppress the appellants willfully with wrong intentions. The respondents mislead the learned single judge with the material facts and filed one after one application before the courts disturbing the dignity of the court. Thereby committing abuse of the court and obstructing the due course of judicial proceedings which is said to be committed under the criminal contempt of the court. The court dismissed the appeal on the ground that it was filed beyond the limitation period of 1 year as per section 20 of The Contempt of Court Act, 1971.

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